Developers Pony Up $225,000 for Zoning Referendum

Developers paid $225,000 to create two groups focused on pushing two zoning bills to the 2014 ballot.

The Committee for Zoning Integrity raised $100,000 for efforts to overturn the zoning bill passed for properties in the 6th District which includes Essex, Middle River and Parkville. The same group also put $25,000 towards the effort to overturn the 2nd District zoning bill also passed in August.

A separate group, the Committee for Zoning Transparency, raised more than $100,000 to overturn the decisions for the second district, which includes Owings Mills, Pikesville and Reisterstown.

The amounts raised by the two groups was part of a set of three financial disclosures filed with the Baltimore County Board of Elections Monday.

All of the money put toward the referendum effort was paid by developers.

Stuart Kaplow, an attorney for the Committee for Zoning Integrity, said his clients decided to file the disclosures even though they didn't have to by law.

"They decided to do it because they have nothing to hide," Kaplow said, adding that other groups opposing the efforts of his clients do not have to disclose how much they've spent.

Kaplow represents David S. Brown Enterprises and David Cordish.

Nearly 90 percent of the more than $187,000 spent by the two groups paid for the services of Georgia-based National Ballot Access, which coordinated the signature gathering and verification efforts.

All told, the two groups combined to submit more than 86,000 signatures between the two potential ballot issues—a cost of more than $2 per signature.

"That's really chump change," Kaplow said. "It's really a nominal amount of money."